7 Books Published Ten Years Ago That You’ll Love Reading This Year | The Republic
7 Books Published Ten Years Ago That You’ll Love Reading This Year
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of books first published ten years ago that you’ll love reading this year. These books, though published ten years ago, remain worth reading today!
So much has happened in the past decade in African literature. The most significant, perhaps, is the return of the Nobel prize in literature to Africa in 2021, when it was awarded to Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah. But beyond that, several stunning books have graced the African literary scene.
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of books first published ten years ago that you’ll love reading this year. From Nnedi Okorafor’s radically imaginative novel about a woman’s battle against forces determined to control her life to Warsan Shire’s exploration of a city and the humans that shape it, these books, though published ten years ago, remain worth reading today!
Read our recommendations below.
BLACKASS AUTHOR: IGONI BARRETT GENRE: FICTION
Reminiscent of the Czech author Franz Kafka’s 1915 classic, The Metamorphosis, Igoni Barrett’s Blackass is a novel about transformation. A full-blooded Nigerian, Furo Wariboko wakes up one morning and finds that he has become a white man. This changes the entire trajectory of his life.
Born and bred in Lagos, in a low-income household, his life has been one of struggle. On the morning of his transformation, he is to attend an interview for a job, which, although quite badly paying, is nonetheless a source of hope for him. But after his transformation, when he hits the streets of Lagos as a white man, he finds doors flying open for him where before they had been slammed shut on his face.
Blackass is an exploration of race relations in the bustling city of Lagos, which has been described as ‘a very modern satire, with a sting in the tail.’
THE BOOK OF MEMORY AUTHOR: PETINA GAPPAH GENRE: FICTION
The Book of Memory, Zimbabwean lawyer and author Petina Gappah’s 2015 classic, is also quite reminiscent of the legendary Egyptian author Nawal El Saadawi’s earlier classic, Woman at Point Zero. In this psychological novel, we meet a woman literally at point zero: Memory, a young albino woman rotting in a Zimbabwean prison, convicted of murder and awaiting her execution, just like Firdaus is Woman at Point Zero. And, like Firdaus, Memory is given an opportunity to tell her story.
In preparation of her appeal, Memory’s lawyer asks her to write down the incidents that led to her murder conviction. It is through Memory’s non-linear account of the series of events that led to her conviction that we learn that she had been convicted for the murder of her adopted father, Lloyd Hendricks, an English professor who adopted her when she was only nine. In addition to revealing the details of her relationship with Lloyd, Memory uses the opportunity of the account to address the brutal superstitions about her albinism, amongst other subjects.
BLACK MOSES AUTHOR: ALAIN MABANCKOU GENRE: FICTION
Though published in 2017,Black Moses is Helen Stevenson’s English translation of Congolese author Alain Mabanckou’s 2015 novel, Petit Piment. In a novel that has been described as ‘Oliver Twist in 1970s Africa’, Mabanckou introduces readers to the underworld of Congo-Brazzaville through a boy with a funny name: Tokumisa Nzambe po Mose yamoyindo abotami namboka ya Bakoko, which means, ‘Let us thank God, the Black Moses is born on the lands of the ancestors.’ For short, he is called Moses.
Moses grows up in an orphanage run by a ‘political stooge’, a life in sharp contrast to his grand name. He is consistently bullied by two other orphans, a pair of twins called Songi-Songi and Tala-Tala. When Moses finally defends himself by lacing the boys’ food with hot pepper, the twins are so impressed that they take him under their wings. Together, then, all three escape the orphanage to form a gang in Pointe-Noire, surviving on petty theft.
Funny, moving, and ‘ringing with beautiful poetry’, Black Mosesis the story of Moses’s journey through the Congolese underworld, and of the collapse of his mind.
MRS SHAW AUTHOR: MŨKOMA WA NGŨGĨ GENRE: FICTION
Kenyan author Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ takes readers through the effects of colonial and postcolonial oppression in this 2015 novel. We are introduced the fictional Kwatee Republic in East Africa, which has been ruled by a dictator for many years. As the novel opens, Kwatee is in the process of transitioning into democracy, and many of its exiles are planning to return home finally.
One of them is Kalumba, a young graduate student in the United States. While in the United States, Kalumba meets Mrs Shaw, an elderly professor and former British settler who fled Kwatee many years ago just as its political troubles began. Kalumba’s girlfriend is another exile, though from Puerto Rico, where her father is imprisoned. All three are united by their status as exiles and the political violence they have endured, but especially Kalumba and Mrs Shaw, who find that they have different perspectives of what really happened in Kwatee.
THE FISHERMEN AUTHOR:CHIGOZIE OBIOMA GENRE:FICTION
The Fishermen rose swiftly to classic status upon its publication in 2015. This debut novel of Nigerian author, Chigozie Obioma, tells the story of the unravelling of a family, as four brothers, Ikenna, Boja, Obembe and Benjamin, find their lives irrevocably impacted by a terrible prophecy.
In their quiet neighbourhood in Akure, Ondo State, there is a river forbidden for fishing, Omi Ala. However, when the brothers’ father is transferred to another state on his job, the brothers start secretly fishing in the river. There, one day, they meet Abulu, a local ‘madman’ believed to have the gift of prophecy. He calls out Ikenna’s name and delivers a series of prophecies: that he will become crippled, mute, and blind; but most damning of all is that he will be killed by a fisherman. Ikenna takes this to mean that he will be killed by one of his brothers. In the coming weeks, Ikenna will turn against his brothers, no matter how much they convince him that they could never kill him. This prophecy undoes the family and renders the brothers’ lives a tragedy.
THE BOOK OF PHOENIX AUTHOR: NNEDI OKORAFOR GENRE: FICTION
Phoenix Okore is a genetic experiment, SpeciMen, developed by Life Gen Technologies to serve as a biological weapon for the Big Eye. She is clueless about this at first, content with her quiet life in her little room at Tower 7, New York, where she lives with other SpeciMen. Then, her lover, Saeed, commits suicide, and no one will answer her questions. She finally realizes that there are great powers at play in her life, and that Tower 7 is really just a prison.
Subsequently, she tries to leave, with the help of her friend and fellow SpeciMen, Mmuo, an event that unleashes a series of events that takes her from the United States to Africa and back again. In her long battle against the Big Eye, she will experience several deaths, transformations, and even learn to visit the past.
HER BLUE BODY AUTHOR: WARSAN SHIRE GENRE: POETRY
British-Somali poet Warsan Shire burst into acclaim in 2013 when she won the first Brunel University African Poetry Prize. Later that year, she was selected as the first Young Poet Laureate for London. In 2015, she turned her gaze on the city, releasing Her Blue Body, a collection of poems written during her tenure as London’s Young Poet Laureate.
In the book, Shire explores the ever-changing face of the city, amplifying the voices of its ‘oft unheard or under-represented communities and spaces.’ She serves as witness and reporter, but also as a participant in city life who, like many others, has to find a way to make sense of a complex heritage, trauma, and womanhood⎈
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